Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2017/05/monday-morning-news220517/
CNBC reported last week that Apple CEO Tim Cook has been seen testing a device connected to his Apple Watch which tracked blood sugar. The news immediately prompted speculation about Apple’s future plans for Apple Watch accessories that would do more than just track heart rate, with new innovative bands that were capable of non-invasive blood glucose tracking.
Tips sent from within WeChat may soon be subjected to Apple’s 30% transaction fee as if they were in-app purchases. A paywalled story from the Wall Street Journal claims Apple demanded app developers disable in-app tipping functionality, or risk being booted from the App Store, although it’s almost possible that removing WeChat from the App Store would hurt Apple more than WeChat.
The design of the next iPhone is almost becoming familiar now, with the latest leak being case moulds of the updated iPhone 7 models and the vertically-arranged dual camera of the next iPhone. While it still seems strange that Apple would release updated iPhone models alongside an entirely new iPhone, it’s possible that there will be no changes to the iPhone 7 design and just spec bumps, while the new stuff gets saved for the new iPhone.
The AAP says a woman wearing wireless headphones from a flight from Beijing was wearing Beats-branded headphones. A representative from Apple claims Apple’s investigation into the issue blames a third-party AAA battery, which could either mean anything from “any AAA battery is a risk” to “some kind of dodgy el-cheapo battery was used”. In either case, Apple no longer sells Beats-branded headphones which take a AAA battery, so whatever headphones they were, they were an older model.
Notaa is Australia’s first HomeKit installer. Apart from selling HomeKit-compatible accessories, they also have a home installation service which has someone come to your house to install HomeKit accessories, as well as showing you how to setup and use scenes within Apple’s Home app. You can book appointments to see HomeKit accessories in action at their HomeKit Open House in Sydney, or visit this link for discounts on Elgato, Nanoleaf, D-Link, Philips, and Friday HomeKit products.
Over at iMore, Jason Snell writes about why the Mac Pro is important to all Mac users. Snell writes that even though regular Mac desktops and laptops fulfil most of the needs of regular computer users, there still needs to be a Mac that handles the needs of many, taking whatever workload in its stride. Laptops are limited by their portability, but being desktop-bound should give the Mac Pro it needs to be flexible, versatile.
Over the weekend MacStories published an iOS 11 concept video. There’s tons of great ideas for what Apple could include in iOS 11 for the iPad, and while it’s probably a little too late for Apple to include any of these in an upcoming demo at WWDC, the point of it all is to start the discussion about what Apple could still be doing to push the iPad platform forward.
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Things, but one of the original great tasklist-based iPhone apps is back. Things 3 is an entirely new app compared to the previous versions, and the MacStories review runs us through both the new features and the differences between Things of old. While you’ll have to buy it each platform you use it on, if you use it to get things done, it’s worth it.
The good news is, Airfoil for Mac has been updated by the good folks at Rogue Amoeba to restore Apple TV compatibility. The Airfoil Satellite TV app is no longer required, even though it will still exist as a fall-back option in case Apple make more changes to the AirPlay protocol.
For all Apple does for accessibility across their platforms, there’s still more they could be doing. Final Cut Pro X doesn’t have support for creating closed captions, which is a shame for those that work in video production that have to cater for the hearing-impaired.